Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Elections '04

The general elections 2004 has been giving everyday some type of surprise. The falling of NDA, the results showing as hung parliament. The worst out of all these is the Bihar incident of booth capturing at Chapra constituency. This show how notorious is Bihar, than the other states. It looks like there will be more horse riding for MP's.

Monday, April 26, 2004

Trip to Ranthambore

The trip to Ranthambore is well narrated in my travel partners blog. Read on
Weekend Trip

Last weekend we had been to Ranthambore. Keep watching more to come.
Trip to Jaisalmer-Part 5

The next day we started off early to get the glimpse of the city and the life inside the fort. After bargaining for a long time we hired a guide to show us around the fort and the important places. The important places that one has to see are the big canon, the Jain temple and the Palace. There are different sizes of canons and on all four directions they have installed huge canons. Apart from that they has have small size canons around the fort. The specialty of the fort is that, they have not used water to construct the fort. The stones are cut in a shape and placed one over the other without using any type of paste.

Also they have big balls of stones and cylindrical stones that will act as weapon once they run out of weapons or ammunition. It is been told till date they have not used those stones as weaponry. No one has ever conquered this fort. We then headed to the Jain temple, which was simply amazing. There were numerous statues and each statue looks same but every statue is a different god. They differentiate the statue by the symbol. There are around 6666 Jain gods and every god is differentiated by the symbol. There was lots of sculptural working than the Ludarva temple. They also contained some good paintings. When the religion started they did not have temples, it was only stone carving. Later on they started constructing temples.

Then we headed to the Palace, which has now been converted into a museum and the current king lives in a new palace called the Mandir Palace. The old palace just looks like a maze. If a new person is left inside he may get lost. Inside the palace they had the photos, armory, dresses, beds and the vessels that was used by the kings in the olden time. They also had the king’s throne and umbrella that are made of silver and gold.

Once we finished the tour of the fort and Palace we headed for breakfast. After our breakfast we headed to a Haveli called Pathwankot Haveli. Haveli’s look good from outside, but once entered one can see dead pigeons, lots of bats and variety of insects. Since nothing was fascinating us we headed back to the hotel to checkout.

Our tour to Jaisalmer was to end at this point because we had our train at 3.30Pm. The major problem was that our tickets were not confirmed. Later on we come to know that Jaisalmer had only 6 tickets to Delhi and ours was waiting list 1, 2, 3 and 4. Once we were at the station we checked out the ticket status with ticket collector to only find that 2 tickets was confirmed the others are still on the waiting list. But the coach was empty till Jodhpur, so the TT agreed to let us travel by the same coach. In Jodhpur we managed to get the remaining two tickets also confirmed.

Tips
1. Traveling by train is the best option, but book the ticket in a way that you don’t end up in trouble. The best option is to book the ticket from Delhi to Jodhpur and from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer and return vis-a-versa.
2. Plan for a four-day trip.
3. One should not miss the night stay at Sand dunes
4. Arrange the safari with well-known people.
5. Follow any of the travel book

Suggestions.
1. Sahara Travels is good and they stick to their word.
2. Nataraj Restaurant is an ideal place for food.
3. The second option for food is Little Tibet inside the fort.

Sunday, April 25, 2004

Trip to Jaisalmer-Part 4

During our dinnertime we were joined with 2 foreigners who were working for the German Embassy and the Italian Embassy. We were talking more about our work and culture of each country. Both of them have come down here for a short stay of 6 months and 8 months. The dinner that was served was special dinner with sweets and special vegetable. The safari organizer has a policy one time food will come from their home. It made us more comfortable by the way they organized.

After dinner we were chatting till 10Pm and then decided to go for sleep. Our beds on the sand dunes were ready. The open sky and the cool breeze were soothing. I immediately fell asleep and by 3Am I woke up because of the cold. Pulled my quilt over me and again I was fast asleep.

We woke up early morning thinking that we will get some good sunrise photos, but nothing was convincing. Before we could finish our photo session we had a call from our guide that we have to leave and the breakfast was ready. The breakfast was some slices of bread with jam, a boiled egg, fruits and a cup of tea. By the time we finished the breakfast the camels were ready and we headed off to a village.

The village consists of one school and around 100 houses. But it looked like there were around only 40 to 50 houses. Our guide also warned about the people, that they may call you into their house and later they will ask you to pay some money. If you don’t pay you will not be let out. We asked our guide to accompany us, but he refused saying that they will not allow him inside the village because he was a Muslim. After 15 to 20 mins rest we were heading to the next spot for our lunch stop, which was 6kms from the village. After around 8 to 10 hrs of camel back we got the confidence of camel ride and started to make the camel to run, it was really amazing.

While we were taking some rest our lunch was prepared and we also got few bottles of chilled water form our organizer. We were taking rest till 3Pm and then headed to the Sam’s sand dunes, which is very famous around that area. That was around 10kms form our place. Once again we started making the camels to run and it ended up as if we were on a racetrack. Because of this we were totally exhausted but we reached the place well in advance. Once again the sunset was not pleasing and the sand dunes were looking like a beaches, full of footprints and crowded. The actual charm of the sand dune is their wave without any footprint.

After some time we started back to the city and reached Jaisalmer around 8Pm. We were very much hungry that we went directly to the restaurant and had our dinner. After dinner we checked into the hotel and all were like a log on the bed sleeping.

More to come…

Friday, April 23, 2004

Trip to Jaisalmer-Part 3

The two places that we visited on our route were Badabagh and Ludarva. Badabagh is the cementary for the kings. Normally the kings body is burnt and the ashes are thrown into the Ganges, after that they build a tomb like structure over the burnt area. Here the queens have their tombs on the upper mount and the Kings have them on the lower mounts. Also the king’s tomb looks like a mugal architecture while the queens are like the rajput architect. We did not go inside because we were running out of time.

Then we headed to Ludarva, which is currently a Jain temple. Long a ago this was the old capital and it had a Lord Krishna Temple. Once the Jain temple was built they also built a underground path to the fort. The Mugals had demolished Ludarva more than 3 times. This temple is considered sacred for women. In this temple there is a tree under which they have placed 5 different kinds of metal to give some kinds of power to that tree. I am not sure whether this really gives a power or it is only a myth. The sculptural work inside the temple is amazing. I was remembered of the workings that we see in the southern temples, also this is the first temple in North I have seen with so much working.

Then we headed to a village called Kanoi, form where our Camel safari was to start. We had two guides for the camel safari standing with four camels. Once all our food and water was tied on the camel back, we started off with our most exciting trip. The schedule was to travel 2hrs on the camel, then have lunch, take some rest and 2hrs more for the sunset point.

The schedule was so perfect even though we were late by an hour. The food was prepared on the open. It was a simple food but it was good. We should really appreciate them for the way they prepared the food. It was a simple desert food. We had Indian bread with Dal and some rice. After our food and rest we were still not able to ride on the camel back, because we were dozing.

We reached our destination around 5.30Pm and had to wait till 7Pm for the sunset. Meanwhile our guides prepared tea and served us. We were told that this is the place that we will be sleeping in the night. We were told the sunset on the dunes would be beautiful. But I was not convinced, because it was not much attractive and the sun was like a silver plate. We were sitting and chatting for a long time on the sand dunes. Around 8.30Pm we were told our dinner was ready and can be served any time we wanted.

More to come about our dinner and night stay…

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Gmail

The option of having a email id with 1000MB is really exciting. As a user of blogger I have become a rat or a monkey for testing the functionality of this new GMAIL. I liked the look and feel of the interface.

Sunday, April 18, 2004

Trip to Jaisalmer-Part 2

We woke up early having a plan that we will do some city watch till 9Am, before our excited trip is to start. The day before we enquired about what is the places to see around the city. The list of places was three Havelis, the Sunset point, the Gadisar Lake, the Fort and Palace and the Mandir palace. Once we were out of the hotel room we straight away started to the Havelis. Haveli is nothing but the living place of a top official, like a prime minister or a diwan. The three Havelis were Salim Singh’s haveli, Patwankot haveli, and the Natamlji haveli. We found out that in Jaisalmer except for teashops and schools everything opens either after 8am or 9am.

Around 8 we entered into the Salim Singh’s haveli and we found that people are living in those monuments. We had to get an entrance ticket, which they told it was for the maintenance of the monument. Salim Singh was the prime minister of the kingdom. He was first officer to come out of the fort, and live outside. The building previously consisted of nine stories. But as on date it has only 7 stories. It is been told that after the death of the prime minister the king did not want any other building which was equivalent to the fort and demolished the above two stories.

As usual the building is constructed with sandstone. One will be astonished to know the way the building is built. Since there was no water, there is no concept of pasting two stones together. The stones were carved in male female model and where locked. All the doors leading to rooms were only 4 to 4.5 ft high and the breadth was only 3ft, but it is been told the prime minister was some where around 6ft. This made difficult for the enemies to enter into the house for an attack. The carvings on the sandstone are also remarkable. It is been told the prime minister wanted to build a bridge between his house and the fort, but before he could do that he died. It is been told that this prime Minster had seven wives.

The whole tour to the haveli took us around 1 hr and end of the tour we asked the guide why was he staying in this and what is the relationship between him and the prime minister. But we only got a smile as a reply. Since we had no time we headed back to the hotel, to check out and get ready for our safari. We had a quick breakfast and headed to Sahara Travels, by which they were ready with the jeep and all our food items and food for the next two days.

On our way to the sand dunes we had the chance to visit two more places, which we will see more, on the coming updates.

More to come…

Friday, April 16, 2004

Trip to Jaisalmer

From the day I had started traveling, the two places that I wanted to visit were Jaisalmer and Khajuraho. It is like dream come true, visiting Jaisalmer.

This trip was planned for four days during the long weekend of Good Friday and Easter. We started on Thursday evening and reached Jaisalmer on Friday 1.30Pm, as usual our Indian railways was late by an hour.

Our plan was to spend more time on the desert life and some to see around the fort and the palace. So straight away we started to enquire about the tour organizers. Since lonely planet was our tourist guide, we followed it recommendation. It was recommended to check out with Ganesh and Sahara Travels for the camel safari. First we had a chat with the Ganesh Travels and then with Sahara. We were very much convinced with Sahara travels and scheduled the trip for next day starting at 9AM.

Since we had the whole afternoon and evening we checked in a near by hotel. We all refreshed and started off to check the near by sites. The first site we visited was the Gadisar lake. This is a man made lake and the only water resource to Jaisalmer. Jain temples surround the lake. Middle of the lake there are some buildings constructed, maybe for the kings and queens to enjoy the evening or even to take bath.

After spending an hour in the lake we headed to the sunset point, which is around 2 to 4kms from the lake. From there one should be able to get a beautiful view of the fort during the sunset. But I think the time we went the sky was cloudy and the sunset was not much attractive. Actually the sunset point is nothing but a cemetery for the Brahmins. After spending the evening there we headed back to the fort to do some shopping. Jaisalmer has nothing of as special. Every item is from the near by city Jodhpur. So the price of goods was also not so attractive. Since we wanted to get something as a remembrance we headed to a cloth shop and got some kurutas. Around 10Pm we were totally exhausted and headed back to the hotel for a good sleep, so that we can enjoy the next day. We were very much excited about the next day’s camel safari.

More to continue…

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

About Jaisalmer

The city with the living fort, or the Golden City is 857 yrs old. Maharawal Jaisal Dev founded it. The current ruler is Maharawal BRIJRAJ SINGH. Even though the city comes under Rajasthan State still they call this as Raj. Here the kings are not called Maharaja, but as Maharawal since they believe they are the descendents of Lord Krishna.

The first capital for this kingdom was Ludarva, which is around 17kms from the current capital. It is been said that Ludarva had been under frequent attacks. Previous there stood a Lord Krishna temple and that was demolished during the Mogul Invasion. Now this place hosts a Jain Temple. This temple is 150 yrs old, and it has some good carvings on sand stone.

The reason for it been called as Golden city is that the whole city is built on sand stone. The name Jaisalmer is because it was founded by Maharawal Jaisal and built over a mer (Hill) called the Trikuta Hills. The whole fort is a 5km stretch, in which the king and his queens lived. Brahmins, Kshatriyas and the relatives of the King where the only people lived inside the fort.

During an invasion or a war the ladies and children were taken to Ludarva by a secret underground path. After the construction of this fort to till date no one had been able to conquer this fort or the city.

Jaisalmer is been considered as one of the richest city, because it was one the major junction for the silk route. It is been told that even the poorest guy will have around 5kg of gold. The only costliest item during the olden times was water. The rule during olden times was if a person requires one bucket of water he had to do social work for 5hrs. They did not have the concept of buying water. Also this one-bucket of water was reused 4 times, first for bathing then for washing clothes then for cleaning the house and finally for toilet.

Jaisalmer is considered as the smallest city but as a kingdom it is the largest one. One end of the boundary to the other end it is 300Kms. The people in this region are mostly business man.

Wednesday, April 07, 2004

Long Weekend

This weekend is a long weekend. So planning for a weekend trip to Jaisalmer. Will update about the trip once I am back from it.
Temperature

The mercury rising has caused, hell a lot of problem for me. This month my working hours are 10Pm to 7Am Mon-Fri which means that I should be sleeping in the day. Sleeping during the day is not a new stuff for me, but it looks like a night mare due to the temperature rise. Since my home is on the second floor it is hot, that if I switch on the fan, I get only hot air. I don't know how am I going to spend another 25 days without sleep.